Women with the Neanderthal gene have easier pregnancies
A gene inherited from Neanderthals has an unexpected effect: it ensures pregnancy with fewer complications. No wonder it is comparatively common.
About 40,000 years ago, a Neanderthal gene variant entered the genome of modern humans that has survived to this day - and is still having an effect: it apparently helps pregnancies to go through with fewer complications. As a result, families in which the Neanderthal gene is common have more children on average, according to data from the UK.
Scientists led by Hugo Zeberg from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig have now come to this conclusion. As they explain in the scientific journal "Molecular Biology and Evolution", the gene variant changes how the cells assemble the receptor for the pregnancy hormone progesterone. Among other things, progesterone is important for preparing the uterus for the implantation of the fertilised egg. This apparently means that carriers of this V660L variant suffer fewer miscarriages and also report less bleeding at the beginning of pregnancy.
As carriers of this gene variant have more offspring on average, it is hardly surprising that the gene is comparatively common in the genome of people alive today. Almost a third of all women who are not of African descent have it. Three out of every hundred women even have two copies of it.
Other Neanderthal genes are much rarer, in fact many are so rare that the reverse process appears to be at work: they have been eliminated from the genetic make-up of humans living today over the last few millennia, presumably because they put their carriers at a disadvantage.
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